CNN’s Brian Stelter: Rolling Stone to Retract UVA Rape Story

On his Sunday “Reliable Sources” broadcast on CNN, host Brian Stelter told viewers he expects Rolling Stone magazine to retract a November 2014 story by Sabrina Rubin Erdely that alleged a rape at a University of Virginia campus fraternity. The formal retraction will occur after the Columbia Journalism School releases the findings of its investigation on the magazine’s handling of the story tonight at 8 p.m. ET according to Stelter’s report.

“[Sabrina Rubin] Erdely never spoke to the alleged attackers. She said Jackie asked her not to. Once the story began to unravel, once CNN, The Washington Post and elsewhere started pointing out contradictions in it, and once Rolling Stone apologized for it and then called in Columbia to investigate Erdely disappeared. She has been invisible ever since. But my sources says she will be breaking her silence tonight. She will be issuing a statement and formally apologizing for her errors.”

“And Rolling Stone will be fessing up, too. Columbia’s investigation has concluded there was a systemic failure at the magazine. In other words everybody was at fault. My sources say the magazine will be taking down the discredited story from the web. So the story will be gone. Columbia’s report will take its place.”